The Augur's Arrival
A glowing mist is pretty easy to see in a pitch-black underground tunnel. Glitch was on watch duty (and Zoey was on Glitch duty!), and by the time the mist was 100 metres away, their silent alarm had everyone standing around, as ready for battle as they ever were. The mist came into view around the last corner, and everyone was quite surprised. It was exactly that - a freely-floating cloud of mist. "Better be ready for it to screw us somehow," muttered Chris. "We don't know what it is, it could be something to do with this world we are trapped in..." Adam pointed out. Dave shushed them both and they waited as it approached slowly. A girl's voice, no more than 15 or 16 and what everyone standing there would call posh, rang in the tunnel, echoing as it bounced off the walls. "Well, you can try to hurt me if you like, but no-one has yet managed it in this form." "Challenge accepted!" yelled Glitch, pointing one of her microwave contraptions at the cloud and activating it. Zoey reaction was too slow to stop her; as she reached forward to grab the gun out of Glitch's hands, the effect reached the cloud. The cloud showed some effect from it, it expanded somewhat, but didn't slow or change in any other way. While Zoey grabbed the gun away from Glitch and slapped her, making it fall apart in her hands as she lost concentration, Adam looked on, interested. "Well, if you can be heated, you can be destroyed." "That may be true, temporarily, but I re-coalesce if that occurs. Anyway, I am not here to hurt you... I am here to give you what you need - information." "Uh... ok," Dave chimed in, "what is your price?" "Let's just say that helping you helps me. You being here forces me to be in this form, and I don't like it. However, I can see everything that happens in this place, and even some glimpses of the future, so... I suspect I can help you, Forethought, help you all." Chris spoke next, while the others were considering the ramifications of the offer (apart from Glitch and Zoey, who were still wrestling, and generally being ignored). "Who is Forethought?" "The guy with the bad trousers. I would point, but you know... cloud form." "Uh... The name's Dave," Chris replied pointing at him with his thumb. "Yes, but... oh. Sorry. The future, present and past... They can all get mixed up and it is hard to tell sometimes. I thought you had already chosen your names. Ah, well, I guess that is to come." "I had been thinking about a superhero name," Dave amitted. "And... It is... better than... M..Martian... P..Pants... Man!" said Glitch, standing up and stepping away from Zoey, who had been distracted by the exchange. A pause, while everyone waited for the others to speak. "Do you want my help or not? You can call me Augur." Dave looked around at the group. "I think what we want is pretty irrelevant at this stage. We need it. Tell us what you know, Augur."